Conservation Imperatives to Conserve the Medicinal Plants in the Himalaya

There is alarming need to conserve the biodiversity for the sustainable strategies by enact of different policies and laws. As the world has witnessed an upsurge of biodiversity related issues after Rio-summit due to continues depletion of natural resources, and biodiversity. The medicinal plants are the major, which are on their way of extinction in Himalayas, as these are recognized from ancient times not for meeting demand for food, fodder, and shelter, but increasingly for medicine .It is estimated that even today the traditional herbal drugs contribute about 80% of the materiel in Indian medicine. Globe estimated that 75% of the 6 billion world population depends upon the herbal drugs. This rich repository of Himalaya has been exploited by many indigenous communities as well as people from the other areas for curing their ailments. The tremendous pressure has been created due to population explosion and indiscriminate exploitation for economic gains also, over last couples of decades. As the extraction of these forests produces ever since has been of the erratic undefined demands. However these extractions are carried out by unscientifically and untrained laborer. The specifically habitat is restricted distribution and endemic nature of some plants the problem of their basic survival and calls for immediate conservation strategies and protocols to be developed. Due to growing demand of raw material on industrial scale has opened avenues for the domestication and large-scale cultivation of these medicinal plants. The conservation and domestication of these plants on large scale by using only appropriate agrotechniques that will prove useful in reliving the pressure of exploitation, enhance multiplication and there by helping in conservation. But unfortunately this is mainly due to lacking of region-specific agro-techniques for growing the crop on commercial scale.
Author Dr Hishmi Jamil Husain having 12 years national and international experience in the field of Environment Management and Sustainable Development. He did BSc. (Hon)

Geology, from Aligarh Muslim University, (India). Finished MSc. Forestry Economics & Management from Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, (India). Completed Post Graduate Diploma in Universalization of Socio-economic Securities for the Poor in from Institute of Social Studies, (The Hague, The Netherlands), Executive Master in e Governance from Ecole Polytechnique Federale De Lausanne, Lausanne, (Switzerland) and Ph.D in Lithology and Soil Characteristics in Relation to Forest Vegetation of Garhwal Himalaya from Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, (India). For different trainings and study he has visited countries USA, Canada, Switzerland, Malaysia, Australia, The Netherlands, Belgium and France etc. Got several fellowships and recognitions some are Swiss Agency for Development & Cooperation (SDC) Fellowship, UNDP Fellowship, World Bank Fellowship. Nominated as Reviewer by Elsevier Science Publishing Group, the Netherlands, Author of Encyclopedia Earth, National Council for Science and the Environment, Washington DC, U.S.A. , Member in the Board of Scientific Journal-Amer-Eurasian Journal of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences, International Digital Organization for Scientific Information, McGill University Macdonald Campus, Montreal, Canada, Member of Research Board of Advisors of the American Biographical Institute, Raleigh U.S.A. Life member of Indian National Science Congress, Member of National Intellectual Property Organization, Member of the Global Association of online Foresters, Member of the Indian Association of Soil and Water Conservationist. Presently working as Environment Superintendent with Rio Tinto. (Email : hishmi.husain@gmail.com, Cell +91-9755593238)

Medicinal plants are plants which may have medicinal properties. Almost all our present medicines come from medicinal plants and are derived from research on medicinal plants.